Many medications are expensive to purchase, have significant street value, and are often stolen or otherwise obtained for the purpose of reselling. Additionally, as patients become increasingly memory challenged due to age or illness, health aids, domestic aids, and other service providers may be necessary to assist in administering medications to the patient. For example, the service provider may assist a patient in administering medication in patient's home and/or in an assisted living facility in which the patient resides. Unfortunately, the service provider may substitute a different medication for the intended medication either accidently or purposely in order to keep or sell the medication. This type of abuse often goes unrecognized. Accordingly, a need exists to authenticate a medication to ensure that a patient receives only the medication that has been prescribed to the patient.
Published and web-based reference sheets are available including a number of medications to allow a patient to look up and visually identify a particular medication prior to taking the medication. These reference sheets typically include an image of a particular pill or other medication showing one or more of a shape, color, and marking of the pill. However, looking up the particular medication that the patient has been prescribed is a time consuming process. A typical patient will stop at the color or size, and can be easily convinced that a different looking pill is a new version of the pill even when such may not be the case. In addition, securing medication by locking the medication within a storage requires diligence and introduces the risk of the patient forgetting to take the medication due to the medication no longer being within sight of the patient.